Tackling E-Waste, This October 13th

The planet is choking on a significant amount of pollution and waste. All of it is, of course, human generated across its entire surface. In a study conducted by the World Economic Forum while ago, it was predicted that by 2050, we’d have more plastic in the oceans than marine life itself. This is a truly shocking estimate, considering the fact that human civilization is only about 10,000 years old, while marine life has thrived for millions of years.

Why E-waste Is A Big Deal

But as we usher into a modern world flush with electronic gadgets and technology, a new kind of waste is taking over the planet. We call it e-waste. E-waste encompasses all the electronic junk that is being discarded after it reaches the end of its life cycle. Given our increasingly rapid upgrade cycles for everything from our smartphones to laptops, this has quickly gone past being a potential threat to us in the future. It is a problem of the present – and it’s already causing plenty of issues.

Here are some statistics on e-waste that make it a big deal.

20 to 50 million metric tons of e-waste is disposed of worldwide, every single year. India produces more than 1.8 million tonnes of this e-waste.

12% of our total e-waste is actually just telecom. equipment, while the majority of waste is due to computers.

Only 20% of e-waste is currently recycled.

America dumps nearly $60 million in gold/silver every year in the forms of e-waste.

By 2020, it is estimated that India will be generating 5 million tonnes of e-waste alone.

As per official UN estimates, we generated nearly 48 million tonnes of e-waste in 2018. That’s 6.3 kilograms of e-waste for every single inhabitant on this planet. Clumped together, it’d be the equivalent in weight to more than 4,500 Eiffel Towers. Another study concluded that we got rid of over 416,000 mobile devices and 142,000 computers using just landfills and incinerators. All this is, of course, quite harmful to the environment and also is hazardous for the people working in the landfills.

Obviously, our electronics consumption isn’t going to decrease any time soon. The frightening aspect over here is the fact that only 14% of the items we throw away are being recycled. On 13th October, which is the very first (and much-needed) International E-Waste Day, there is a strong need to educate the average Indian (and the global audience) about recycling their e-waste so that pollution is controlled.

Working on ensuring its success, 40 different organisations in 20 different countries worldwide are doing their bit, with the sole objective of reducing the massive amount of e-waste being generated and move towards recycling.

The Recycling Impact

Recycling doesn’t just keep the planet’s surface clean and thriving for life. It has a cascading positive impact on a host of other issues, and a very welcome one at that. With reused materials, we’re saving on the energy consumption from excessive manufacturing, and lost economic value.

Recycling just one million laptop computers – which is a fraction of the total we dispose of every year – could save enough energy to run 3,657 US homes for a year. Though figures such as these are not available for specific regions such as India, it is quite clear that recycling is the way to move ahead to preventing excess energy consumption, and also stopping pollution from taking over the earth.

Cashify’s mission is closely intertwined with these themes. The electronic devices we buy back from consumers are refurbished for sale again, or responsibly recycled – ensuring we’re doing our bit in helping reducing e-waste.

Cashify is a customer-centric solution to tackling e-waste, allowing customers to resell their old smartphone for cash instead of throwing it away to fill a landfill. Cashify’s portal is simple and easy to use, with convenient and transparent pricing estimation. Its partnership with nearly all the major smartphone brands – such as Apple, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Samsung – along with partnerships with Amazon and Flipkart, have it ideally placed for selling used smartphones of all sorts of makes and designs.

This International E-waste Day, let’s double down on our pledge to keep the planet clean, and give our gadgets a little extra lease of life 🙂